


Proving Richard Wrong

by VirginiasWolf



Series: Life Moves On [14]
Category: Death in Paradise
Genre: F/M, Reunions, Skype
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-30
Updated: 2019-08-30
Packaged: 2020-09-30 16:08:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20449856
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VirginiasWolf/pseuds/VirginiasWolf
Summary: During a Skype conversation with Fidel and Juliette, Richard and Camille tell a fake version of their wedding story and Richard is forced to confront exactly how wrong he is about some things regarding himself.Part of the Life Moves On series and takes place probably a few weeks after The Package (which has now been made the most recent story in the series so that it doesn't seem as weird to continue). This story also references several events from previous ones in the series, but the one you most need to read is Pooles in Pajamas to get the true story behind Richard and Camille's wedding and understand why it should never be told to people who weren't there.





	Proving Richard Wrong

**Author's Note:**

> The series has now been reordered so that it is now in chronological order and it doesn't feel as weird to continue it. Yay. Also, trust me, in this case, Richard being proved wrong is actually a very good thing although I won't give away spoilers.

"Is what your mother said about you and the old chief true?" It's the first thing Fidel says to Camille when the Skype video chat opens up. There's a obvious tone of excitement in his voice, although she can tell there's some wariness behind it too.

  
Richard's "death" had caused a perhaps more instantaneous effect on Fidel than it had even on her, or at least a more obvious one. While Camille had at least tried to work with Humphrey before giving up and realizing she couldn't heal her broken heart on the island, Fidel had been so crushed by believing his former mentor was dead that he had immediately taken a position on another island when it was offered. Months later, in an e-mail to Camille, which had actually come after she was in Paris, he'd outright admitted that as much as he'd tried, he couldn't respect Humphrey and had even grown to loathe him after he'd admitted that he intended to make a move on Camille.

  
Now, the look on his face tells Camille that to him, finding out that Richard is alive would be the best news he could hear right now, but he also has a bit of trouble believing it, which is understandable because if Camille wasn't sitting just a few feet away from a very much alive Richard Poole, whom she has been married to for close to a month now, then she might very well have trouble believing it herself.

  
Instead, she turns to the figure just outside of the view of the webcam. "See, I told you Fidel would be excited to hear about you."

  
Richard lets out a soft huff of breath. "You both have terribly low standards on what you find exciting." However, he does almost look like he's going a little misty-eyed before he quickly blinks to brush it away and attempts to scoot into the view of the webcam which results in the screen now showing two half faces instead of one whole face.

  
Fidel doesn't seem to mind though, because he lets out a loud, excited "CHIEF!" before turning away from the computer screen to yell, "JULIETTE, THE OLD CHIEF IS ALIVE! LOOK!"

  
At this excitement, Richard looks almost shocked and Camille can't help but smile and lace her hand with his. He really doesn't seem to be able to handle that people actually find him important enough to be overjoyed by his presence. His naivety about how much he means to those around him is both precious and a little heartbreaking. It isn't fair that it's taken over forty years and the worst tragedy of his life for him to finally be aware that there are people who treat him like a blessing and not a burden. His shock only seems to grow when Juliette Best reacts with as much excitement as her husband had shown.

  
Richard quickly steers the conversation into asking all kinds of questions about Fidel and Juliette's life, and about Rosie, and Camille knows that he genuinely is interested in the answers, but he's also trying to keep the talk away from what he considers to be the less important subject, which is his own miraculous return from near-death and subsequent journey into happiness with her. This only works for so long before the conversation turns to the inevitable.

  
"But Chief, how did you...why did they tell us you were dead?" Fidel asks with wonderment in his voice.

  
"I'm not completely sure. I believe at first they thought that my life might still be in danger, and INTERPOL had their sights set on having me work for them as an undercover operative. A disastrous choice on their part really, as I was utterly incompetent until Camille came along." He manages to leave out the part where his "incompetence" was due to becoming extremely suicidal and nearly taking his own life twice, but that's not something Fidel needs to know, so Camille is perfectly okay with him leaving out how he'd sunk to his worst. "Oh, and you do realize that you're allowed to call me Richard now, don't you Fidel?"

"I'm sorry, I can't do that. It feels too disrespectful, as you were my mentor."

  
For the second time this evening, Richard looks as if he's about to go misty-eyed from something that Fidel has said, but he recovers quickly. "Right, right. Well, as you can see my survival is hardly a very interesting story to tell."

  
"Men tend to gloss over everything," Juliette states, talking to Camille, "but I do think we need more of the story, especially the part that led up to you two getting married after, how long exactly did you date for?"

  
"Six months."

  
"He popped the question after two," Camille interjects.

  
"Well, I didn't exactly pop the question. I merely blurted out that perhaps we should get married after a night when I hadn't slept very much and you seemed to consider it as an actual proposal so I couldn't very well turn you down, could I?" Richard is clearly trying to save the reputation that Fidel knows him for. It was actually true that he'd blurted out the comment about marriage when they were on a disastrously long boat ride between France and England, and he was in massive pain due to a freshly broken nose, but Camille knows that he would only have taken back his comment if she'd told him they were moving too fast.

  
Their agreement to get married so soon had been mutual, and it had just felt right, especially with how she'd realized that you could lose someone you loved in a matter of minutes and most of the time you didn't get them back. She'd been trying to make him look at least a little romantic in Fidel and Juliette's eyes, but because he is Richard Poole, he hadn't recognized the bone she'd been throwing him. Oh well, she hadn't exactly married him because she expected him to suddenly change his ability to read people.

  
For a second Fidel looks as if he's trying to figure out how to ask something else, but he finally just decides to blurt it out. "So, is it true that you both wore your pajamas to the wedding?"

  
Richard blushes for a moment before stating, "Ah, well...yes, that's actually completely true."

  
Of course, this entails another weird story that wouldn't quite be glamorous, but at least this time they've already worked together to come up with a plausible lie to tell their friends that doesn't involve the truth of menstruation or Camille having multiple breakdowns and still being branded an utter bridezilla by several of Richard's more conservative aunts.

  
As for Richard, those same aunts think that he has changed from a quiet, respectful young man to someone they are sure is completely manipulated by Camille's "toxic influence". You'd think they would at least be glad that their nephew is actually alive to get married, after they'd been fed the same lie about his death that Camille, Fidel and the rest of Saint Marie had, but some people just can't be pleased, even by a loved one developing an increased sense of self-worth and decreased desire to just take personal injustice without a fight.

  
None of that is important to answering Fidel's question though, so Camille is the one who starts to tell the story they'd rehearsed. "_Somebody_ accidentally caused his aunt to spill coffee all over my wedding gown only an hour before the ceremony." Camille shoots a fake passive-aggressive glance at Richard to make it all seem more authentic.

  
Richard falls easily into the pretend scuffle they're having as they retell this version of the tale. "Well if you hadn't screamed I wouldn't have burst into the room to make sure you were okay."

  
"Wait, wait so what happened?" Fidel asks clearly amused by the bickering but also falling easily into the fake story trap.

  
"My mum accidentally poked her with a pin."

  
"And I screamed because it hurt, but Richard thought I was in danger and burst into the room which terrified everybody obviously."

  
At this, Juliette shoots Richard a look that almost seems to wither him through the screen and Camille squeezes his hand below the webcam's view to remind him that they're really just playing out an acceptable version of their wedding story.

  
"It actually was in a way quite noble, although misguided and his mother was going on about how she was worried I'd get an infection from the pinprick, so she at least seemed to think that I was at some risk."

  
"I bet you were still in so much trouble at first though, Chief," Fidel states.

  
"Yep. I thought Camille was going to kill me when it first happened. Almost made it worse by suggesting the pajamas."

  
"But then he looked so sad and guilty like a cute little puppy dog that I couldn't stay angry with him."

  
At this comment, Richard sighs and rolls his eyes. Admittedly, comparing him to a puppy wasn't in their planned script, but she's realized that he really does look like a little puppy when he feels sad or guilty, and she feels like adding that comment makes it all seem more authentic because she's sure she isn't the only one who's noticed this expressive tendency of his.

  
After the wedding story, Fidel teases even more information out of them about their lives and his and Juliette's interest seems to stun Richard to the point where he is almost speechless leaving Camille to take over and provide the details that seem appropriate without being too invasive. She may want to be able to proclaim about how wonderful it is that she finally has her man, but she doesn't want to cause said man to feel too stifled or nervous as he already seems to have been pulled so out of his element that she's half afraid he might have a heart attack if she heaps too much praise on him.

  
In the end, Fidel and Juliette insist that although Camille has previously visited them on Saint Lucia, now, of course, her and Richard need to visit soon, and as the Skype call ends Camille can't help but glance over at her husband who still looks like he's trying to wrap his mind around all that he's been presented with.

  
After a moment of watching him, Camille can't help but speak. "You really haven't figured it out yet, have you?"

  
For a moment there's a panic in Richard's eyes that she hates and she wonders if someone like Doug Anderson once said the exact same words to him except followed by some horrible phrase about how nobody actually liked him or wanted him to be alive. However, Camille gets to take great delight in how her usage of the phrase will be followed by something much nicer.

  
"You are an amazing man and you are loved by so many people."

  
Richard seems to almost let out a breath of relief, but he quickly states, "You can't know that for sure."

  
"Oh, I am an excellent detective who is usually completely right in her deductions and I also take great pride in proving wrong anyone who insults my husband. So I will prove you wrong and you will just have to live with it."

  
Never before has she seen a man look so genuinely hopeful at the prospect of being wrong.

**Author's Note:**

> If you're wondering about the comment about Richard's mom freaking out about pricking Camille with the pin, I'm currently reading The Killing of Polly Carter which is one of the tie in novels with the series, and in it we meet Jennifer Poole and find out she's a perfectionist and hypochondriac to the extent that her son looks pretty chill and laid back. Because she comes to the island in the story, Fidel also meets her and would probably find little details like this throw in to make the story seem more authentic and not worth questioning.


End file.
